Ashkenazi Jews in Mexico: Ideologies in the Structuring of a Community (SUNY series in Anthropology and Judaic Studies)

In a century full of social dreams and abhorrent calamities, the survival of a small cultural ethnic group is no small story. Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews arrived in Mexico in the early years of this century. The vast majority of these 40,000 Jews live in Mexico City and have done so for most of the eighty years of this communal experiment. Arriving with few resources, the Ashkenazi created a network of organizations to sustain their cultural survival in a country that had its own complex cultural context. This community chose its own survival path; while successful in confronting some issues, it faced problems of identity and social cohesion that mirror contemporary dilemmas everywhere. The author examines the particular exchanges that took place between minority and majority, and reflects on the challenges for multicultural living shaped by pluralism, democracy, and socio-political tolerance. This Book Focuses Of Six Literary And Political Figures In A Study Of Jews Of European Descent In Mexico. Ch. 1. The Reestablishing Of An Acquaintanceship -- Ch. 2. The Development Of The Communal Structure -- The Building Of A Structure -- Expansion And Culmination Of The Structuring Efforts: The Kehillah -- Ch. 3. Profiles Of Thought: The People Behind The Ideologies -- The First Ideological Conflict: Journalist And Critic Salomon Kahan And Poet Jacobo Glantz -- A Politician Amidst Vanished Politics: Bundist Tuvie Maizel -- Still Praising What Was Lost: Communist Boris Rosen -- Conflict Turned Consensus: Shimshon Feldman, Politician Par Excellence -- Within The Winning Ideology, The Inescapable Diaspora Questions: Zionist Avner Aliphas -- The Ideology Of The Outsider: Ideologue, Writer, And Pedagogue Abraham Golomb -- Ch. 4. Confrontations That Produced Structural Changes: Five Case Studies -- The Process Of Consolidation (the First Experiment): The Creation Of The Central Committee -- The Ideological Delimitation Of Political Control: Communists, Bundists, And Zionists -- Content Legitimation And Control: Education And The Growth Of The School Network -- The Control Of Form: The Language Conflict -- Incomplete Allowance: The Politics And Interrelation. Adina Cimet. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 215-225) And Index.